Learning, Marrying Called Keys To Wealth

December 1, 1986|Money magazine

When the Census Bureau released a landmark study of wealth in America in late July, it provided a fascinating picture of how Americans become wealthy. The underlying factors include age and education, income and history and, almost as significantly, getting and staying married.

Not surprisingly, older and better-educated people are more likely to be wealthy than are younger, less highly schooled ones. The median net worth of households headed by college graduates, for example, was $60,417; for high school grads, $31,892; and for those with less than 12 years of education, $23,447. The lesson is that education is a great investment.

Flowing from education is a healthy income -- another ticket to wealth. Fully 38 percent of the nation`s total net worth, which for the Census Bureau`s purposes included home equity, bank accounts, automobiles and securities, is controlled by the 12 percent of households that have monthly incomes of $4,000 or more.

Small differences in income create big differences in wealth, largely because whatever is left after the essentials are paid for can become assets that grow exponentially over time and ultimately can be passed from generation to generation.

Another key to wealth is marriage. It`s not so much that two can live cheaper than one, but that two can earn more than one. Excess earnings often become savings and then wealth.

Overall, households headed by married couples had a median net worth of $50,116, compared with $13,885 for households headed by unmarried females (whose numbers include large numbers of wealthy widows as well as unwed mothers on welfare) and $9,883 for those headed by unmarried men. The message, with apologies to Henny Youngman: Don`t take my wife -- or husband -- please.